326 
FROM BITTER ROOT VALLEY TO FORT HALL. 
consisting of an’elope, deer, beaver, &c.—has been almost innumerable. The Flatheads, also, 
who arrived from the hunt a few days before we left ihe Bitter Root valley, came in loaded with 
meat and furs. This day has been from 12 m. cloudy, with every appearance of snow, the ther¬ 
mometer at 2 p. m. standing at 36°. After crossing the Big Hole mountain we fell upon a 
branch of the Wisdom river, which is a tributary to the Jefferson fork of the Missouri. This 
branch flows through a well timbered valley about two miles in width, and occasionally forming 
patches of prairie from six to twelve miles in length and three to four in width. It receives many 
small tributaries running from the mountain ridges on each side in every possible direction. We 
followed along the main branch of this mountain stream for a distance of seventeen miles, camp¬ 
ing on its left bank or a slope of the mountain, which we found clear of snow. From our camp 
of this night we had a line view over a large and beautiful prairie, called the Big Hole prairie. 
Bounding this prairie on the east, and at a distance of twemy miles, lay a high ridge of snow- 
clad mountains, from which flow in every direction small tributaries to the Jefferson fork of the 
Missouri. The mountains on the south and west are a range of the Salmon River mountains, 
separating the waters of Salmon river from those of the Missouri. In this prairie are often seen 
large bands of buffalo and moose; deer and antelope, also, occur in great abundance. The night 
of this day was clear and cool, the thermometer at 9 p. m. being at 30°. 
D'cember 5, 1853.—Commences cool, with snow, the thermometer at sunrise being 30°. The 
wind during the night was quite heavy, blowing from the south-southwest; towards 8 a. m., 
however, it became pleasant, when we resumed our march, which lay across the large prairie 
referred to yesterday. On the western portion of this prairie we found the snow six inches deep, 
while no snow was seen on the eastern portion. We crossed several prairie streamlets during 
the day which flow into the Wisdom river, all of which were Irozen over sufficiently hard to bear 
our animals. This prairie is about fifteen miles wide and fifty long, being hemmed in on all sides 
by mountains except towards the southeast, where is a gap, through which issues the Wisdom 
river. After crossing this prairie, at which time our course was 15° south of east, our trail 
tended along the base of the range of mountains bounding it on the east; our course then becoming 
east of south. This we followed for a distance of fifteen miles farther, over a very excellent 
prairie road. Here it struck a small stream from the mountains, where we camped, finding good 
grass and water for our animals; our fuel consisting of small dried willows, which were the 
remnants of an old Nez Perces camp. We passed on the road of this day a large rock, (of con¬ 
glomerate,) which projected from a large bed that formed the western slope of the range bound¬ 
ing the prairie on the east. This conglomerate of rounded gravel-stones and broken fragments of 
rocks, cemented together by a silicious cement—firmed quite a hard rock. We broke from it a 
specimen, which is labelled No. 13. This same rock we found in very large quantities along the 
Jefferson fork of the Missouri, being traced for a distance of fifty miles up the main stream and its 
principal tributaries, where, however, the formation is more water-worn, and occurs in very large 
beds, forming in some places bluffs one hundred feet high. The formation in the Big Hole prairie 
is the farthest west that we have as yet seen it. On the stream where lay our camp of this night 
we found a range of hot springs, where, the water bubbles from the ground, issuing from nearly 
one hundred springs. The stones around these springs we found to be encrusted with a thick 
coating of lime, and the bed of the stream from which flows the water of these many springs to 
be covered with a thick, green, slimy coating. The temperature of the water was 132° ; its taste is 
not at all unpleasant, being that of pure warm water. The grass along the border of the stream 
is dry and parched. These springs are so numerous, and flow so freely, that the water from 
them forms a large stream, and the vapor arising from it looks, at a distance, like the smoke from 
a fire on the prairies. There is another range of these hot springs in'a prairie north of this, known 
as “ Deer Lodge,” which will be referred to hereafter, as it will be on our return-route. In the 
range of mountains bounding the prairie of Big Hole, and nearly due east from our camp of 
last night, and about twenty miles distant, is a large mountain lake, six miles in length and four 
